Mr MILLS - 2001-02-20
The best job opportunities, the best possible education, the best possible health care, the best lifestyle, and the safest community in Australia with the best possible living standards, these are the CLP government strategies for all Territorians. What will help enhance these strategies?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the railway will be a significant help in further developing those strategies. It will generate around 2000 jobs for Territorians. It will generate very broad economic activity across the Northern Territory. It will ensure that the economic base of the Northern Territory continues to grow, and that our economy remains the strongest in the country. We have forecast growth by Access Economics for 2005 of 5% annually.
Ms Martin: What about last year? Come on what about last year?
Mr REED: I know you don’t like it but that’s what it will generate. With a strong economy you can continue to maintain the best skills in Australia, excellent health services, increased numbers of policemen on our streets providing safety for Territorians and their property, and all of the other things, particularly the maintenance of the wonderful lifestyle Territory residents seek to enjoy.
We are within 24 hours of the Prime Minister making a commitment to ensure the funding for the railway will be in place if it can’t be found by private sources. What is the first action that the Leader of the Opposition takes – she tries to find a way to knock it. She tries to find a way to knock the railway even when it is this close. What did we get out of Clare Martin’s boss? While she sits here laughing to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is a convention to refer to people by their electorate names.
Mr SPEAKER: We are being a little tedious but I ask the minister to refer to members by their correct title.
Mr REED: Is ‘Leader of the Opposition’ not appropriate? Is she ashamed of her title? Well, she should be. She should be ashamed to hold the position of Leader of the Opposition. Within 24 hours of the project being assured of going ahead, of work likely to commence in April generating jobs for Territorians, she takes the opportunity to be negative and put the program down. She should be absolutely ashamed of herself. What did Beazley do? The Prime Minister came to Darwin and gave Territorians an extra $26m. Beazley came to Darwin and gave the Territorians what? ‘We’ll have a meeting. We’ll have an inquiry. We will have a Spanish Inquisition into the railway’. What sort of confidence would that generate in terms of investors who want to be part of this wonderful project? Labor Prime Minister Hawke, he wimped-out on the railway, and Clare Martin, the Leader of the Opposition, is on the public record as saying: ‘It is a faded dream. The railway is a faded dream’. She has never believed in it and she only mouths platitudes in relation to ‘I support the railway’. She has never meant it. Warren Snowdon, Canberra’s man in the Northern Territory representing the federal Labor Party, he, last week in Alice Springs, was saying that there should be an inquiry, and Beazley comes out and supports the inquiry.
The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Fannie Bay, has so much influence over the federal Leader of the Opposition that on the very same day that she said federal Labor will put more money into the railway, Kim comes on the radio and says: ‘Oh no, we won’t. Oh no, we won’t. Don’t believe Clare Martin, because we are not putting any more money into the railway’. There you have the true position of the Labor Party both federally and locally in terms of their lack of commitment to the railway.
Warren Snowdon had the temerity to suggest that this government should establish a bipartisan relationship with this mob over there to get the railway on track. Can you imagine confiding in the Leader of the Opposition on a $1.2bn project who in the morning says, ‘I’ll get some more money out of the federal Labor Party because Kim Beazley’s made that commitment’, and then Kim gets on the radio and says: ‘Oh no she won’t’?. She would be a great one to confide in! It would be a wonderful bipartisan approach in terms of how you might be able to progress a project like this.
I was at a function last night with some 400 Territory business people and I saw them just about lift the roof off the MGM Grand convention room when the Prime Minister made the announcement -and I saw the enthusiasm. Today I have had the phone calls from the business people in Katherine who say they are just so pleased that the project is now going to proceed. Some of those business people will be listening to this broadcast, and some of those people will have heard the member for Fannie Bay, the Leader of the Opposition, at her first opportunity in Question Time this year, trying to put the project down. This was within 24 hours of the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister reaching agreement that will make the project a surety.
You are a wimp! You should be ashamed of yourself. You have never believed in the railway. You have always believed it to be a faded dream. I know that Territory business people will be absolutely horrified at the Leader of the Opposition’s negativity in relation to this matter. Within 24 hours of the solution being found she is still trying to put it down and Kim Beazley is trying to give us an inquiry.
The Prime Minister gives us $26m; Kim Beazley gives us a miserable inquiry. A fine way to progress 2000 jobs for Territorians! Don’t you dare stand up now and ask a question about economic activity and generating jobs in the Territory. You have proved yourself to be a weasel and not confident of leading the group that you do lead.
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, the railway will be a significant help in further developing those strategies. It will generate around 2000 jobs for Territorians. It will generate very broad economic activity across the Northern Territory. It will ensure that the economic base of the Northern Territory continues to grow, and that our economy remains the strongest in the country. We have forecast growth by Access Economics for 2005 of 5% annually.
Ms Martin: What about last year? Come on what about last year?
Mr REED: I know you don’t like it but that’s what it will generate. With a strong economy you can continue to maintain the best skills in Australia, excellent health services, increased numbers of policemen on our streets providing safety for Territorians and their property, and all of the other things, particularly the maintenance of the wonderful lifestyle Territory residents seek to enjoy.
We are within 24 hours of the Prime Minister making a commitment to ensure the funding for the railway will be in place if it can’t be found by private sources. What is the first action that the Leader of the Opposition takes – she tries to find a way to knock it. She tries to find a way to knock the railway even when it is this close. What did we get out of Clare Martin’s boss? While she sits here laughing to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition ...
Ms MARTIN: A point of order, Mr Speaker! There is a convention to refer to people by their electorate names.
Mr SPEAKER: We are being a little tedious but I ask the minister to refer to members by their correct title.
Mr REED: Is ‘Leader of the Opposition’ not appropriate? Is she ashamed of her title? Well, she should be. She should be ashamed to hold the position of Leader of the Opposition. Within 24 hours of the project being assured of going ahead, of work likely to commence in April generating jobs for Territorians, she takes the opportunity to be negative and put the program down. She should be absolutely ashamed of herself. What did Beazley do? The Prime Minister came to Darwin and gave Territorians an extra $26m. Beazley came to Darwin and gave the Territorians what? ‘We’ll have a meeting. We’ll have an inquiry. We will have a Spanish Inquisition into the railway’. What sort of confidence would that generate in terms of investors who want to be part of this wonderful project? Labor Prime Minister Hawke, he wimped-out on the railway, and Clare Martin, the Leader of the Opposition, is on the public record as saying: ‘It is a faded dream. The railway is a faded dream’. She has never believed in it and she only mouths platitudes in relation to ‘I support the railway’. She has never meant it. Warren Snowdon, Canberra’s man in the Northern Territory representing the federal Labor Party, he, last week in Alice Springs, was saying that there should be an inquiry, and Beazley comes out and supports the inquiry.
The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Fannie Bay, has so much influence over the federal Leader of the Opposition that on the very same day that she said federal Labor will put more money into the railway, Kim comes on the radio and says: ‘Oh no, we won’t. Oh no, we won’t. Don’t believe Clare Martin, because we are not putting any more money into the railway’. There you have the true position of the Labor Party both federally and locally in terms of their lack of commitment to the railway.
Warren Snowdon had the temerity to suggest that this government should establish a bipartisan relationship with this mob over there to get the railway on track. Can you imagine confiding in the Leader of the Opposition on a $1.2bn project who in the morning says, ‘I’ll get some more money out of the federal Labor Party because Kim Beazley’s made that commitment’, and then Kim gets on the radio and says: ‘Oh no she won’t’?. She would be a great one to confide in! It would be a wonderful bipartisan approach in terms of how you might be able to progress a project like this.
I was at a function last night with some 400 Territory business people and I saw them just about lift the roof off the MGM Grand convention room when the Prime Minister made the announcement -and I saw the enthusiasm. Today I have had the phone calls from the business people in Katherine who say they are just so pleased that the project is now going to proceed. Some of those business people will be listening to this broadcast, and some of those people will have heard the member for Fannie Bay, the Leader of the Opposition, at her first opportunity in Question Time this year, trying to put the project down. This was within 24 hours of the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister reaching agreement that will make the project a surety.
You are a wimp! You should be ashamed of yourself. You have never believed in the railway. You have always believed it to be a faded dream. I know that Territory business people will be absolutely horrified at the Leader of the Opposition’s negativity in relation to this matter. Within 24 hours of the solution being found she is still trying to put it down and Kim Beazley is trying to give us an inquiry.
The Prime Minister gives us $26m; Kim Beazley gives us a miserable inquiry. A fine way to progress 2000 jobs for Territorians! Don’t you dare stand up now and ask a question about economic activity and generating jobs in the Territory. You have proved yourself to be a weasel and not confident of leading the group that you do lead.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016